EARLY DAYS, COOLGARDIE
Taking a drive round Coolgardie I was much surprised at the size of the place. It is four miles square. Driving out to the racecourse we passed the recreation-ground. As it was Saturday, many of the boys of the town were playing cricket. We passed through the suburb of Toorak. Certainly there are no fine mansions; for the most part the places are Hessian camps with occasional tents, but there are also some very comfortable-looking wooden cottages, many with praiseworthy attempts at ornamentation, painted light green, and not at all unpleasing to the eye in this sandy and desert-looking country. There are no large trees here at all, a few medium-sized ones, and plenty of mulga scrub and salt-bush, which looks most dry and uninviting, but contains much nourishment, so that sheep and cattle thrive well on it, and mulga is almost the only food of the camel. Returning to Coolgardie, we passed through the town again and crossed the railway bridge to the other chief suburb, Montana. Here we saw the fine residence of Warden Finnerty, and the hospital, called John of God. On we went past the suburb along the road to the famed Londonderry. The country just here was very pretty; there is a deep gully on one side with a good deal of vegetation, which, after all the sand and mulga, was most pleasing to the eye. The sun was just setting, and the brilliant red of the sky seemed to cast a reflection on the earth. The mines in the background, with the tents scattered round, a camel-train along the bush, and the town in the distance, formed a unique picture. Returning we took another direction, past the oldest part of the town, and past the Afghans’ camp. The day’s work was done and hundreds of camels were lying down or munching the mulga. The Afghans were preparing their evening meal and chattering to one another in shrill voices. I soon saw quite enough of this part, and was not sorry to return to my comfortable quarters at the hotel.
The population of Coolgardie and the immediate neighbourhood is at the present time about 13,000; a few years ago there were more than twice that number, most of whom have gone to the Kalgoorlie and other fields, as the enormous richness of Coolgardie is now a thing of the past, although many mines are still yielding well.
There is a really splendid post-office, also a court-house and warden’s offices, recently finished. These are three of the finest public buildings in Western Australia. There are many other fine buildings, notably the Grand Hotel, Union Bank, and Beaconsfield Chambers. The Chamber of Mines is another handsome building on a splendid site, and a most valuable place for the mining community. The Chamber of Mines keeps the people of the world well informed concerning the great gold-mining industry, and communicates statistical information of a trustworthy character to every member interested in the mines of the colony, as well as information concerning the fairness and justice of legislation dealing with mines. One half of the building is occupied by the Coolgardie Club. Looking at these magnificent buildings in the wide and spacious streets, all lighted up by electricity, and supplied with every luxury, one can scarcely realise that a few years ago Coolgardie was a sandy desert; where many men went through hardships almost beyond imagination; where fever reigned supreme; where the bare necessities of life were daily longed for in vain; where comforts were the things to be only dreamed of and the isolation was terrible; where tinned meat, the only kind obtainable, became almost hateful, and received the name of “tinned dog”; where one could almost cry, “Water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink,” since the pioneers often found themselves in a wilderness with nothing but salt water, quite unfit to drink, and refused even by the camel, who is supposed to drink almost anything obtainable. Camels would stray away seeking for water, and then the owners would return to their camps disheartened, saying that they had no time to look for gold, it took all their time to look for water and camels. The terrible longing for home news, and the uncertainty of getting any; the wall that seemed to divide the miners from the rest of the world, together with the feeling that there was untold wealth of gold lying beneath their feet if they could only hold out and keep up strength to get at it, made their lives almost intolerable, and many of those first prospectors have gone under, poor fellows! leaving others to reap the reward and to make Coolgardie the wonderful place it is to-day.
Then came better times, when sufficient food could be obtained, and water condensers were brought, which, by a certain heat process, made the salt water more fit for use, although it was still sometimes so bad that the rich prospectors often performed their ablutions in champagne by preference to it.
Going down Bayley Street that morning there was quite a stir outside one of the smaller hotels. Of course, woman’s curiosity prompted me to stop and look, and I found a wedding-party just returned from church. The landlord of this hotel, Mr. Faahan, has really had a unique experience in servants, for this is the twenty-second of his women assistants, presumably in the bar, who has entered the bonds of wedlock while in his employ. The hotel is one of the oldest in Coolgardie. I have since entered it and met the genial Mrs. Faahan, who took me outside and showed me an old tree beneath which the first drink under licence was served in Coolgardie. The place that is now the kitchen was then the bar, gold-dust was plentiful, and champagne ran like streams of water. Opposite to Mr. Faahan’s is the Cremorne Theatre, a very large place now, but in the first days it was a shed with a stage made of rough planks laid across beer-casks, and no accommodation for visitors to sit down, and it is said that the miners used to pass the time between the “turns,” as they call them, by calling out the favourite players and throwing nuggets or screws of gold-dust at them. Good old days!
